META24 CORE · PROJECT-BASED · ENGLISH · UPPER SCHOOL · GRADE 9 · 1 CREDIT · CCSS ELA
English 9 · Story, Source, Seminar
Literature read for craft, history read for its sources, argument held in a seminar with the text open — and every quarter ends with a thing you made: a film, a case, a produced scene, a defended portfolio.
THE MIX · HOW MUCH OF EACH CORE SUBJECT THIS COURSE CARRIES · IN ORDER
READING & WRITINGHISTORY, GEOGRAPHY & HUMANITIESART & DESIGNTECHNOLOGY & TRADES
The squares are a picture of a course — how much of each core subject its own rooms carry, read from the rooms’ text — never a score of a student. Every course in a lab is graded to the core across the board; the squares say which columns it feeds most.
WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO
- Analyse how a story’s devices build its meaning and its argument
- Read primary sources for authorship, audience and purpose, and write an evidence-bound case
- Write narrative, argument and analysis at length, revised across drafts
- Speak in a seminar: a position, the text cited, the concession when the text wins
AT A GLANCE · 36 WEEKS
Q1 Craft · the story taken apart — The analytic film
Q2 The Record · The History of Sugar — THE CASE · sugar
Q3 Production · The Last Meal — A produced scene with a pitch
Q4 The Seminar · nine questions — The position paper and the portfolio
Semester 1
WEEKS 1–18 · QUARTERS 1 AND 2Craft · the story taken apart
WEEKS 1–9 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1–3The eight parts and the hook
The architecture of story; five openings judged on a clock.
WK 4–7Ship-Trap at the HS rung
Foreshadowing, irony, the turn — every device, and the film planned.
WK 8–9Between the lines
Inference written as analysis.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
The analytic film
The question. How does the story make you side with the hunted — and then doubt it?
The make. A short film of one scene with a written analysis of the three devices the cut depends on
The evidence. The film (link) and the analysis, handed in through Ship-Trap
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The Record · The History of Sugar
WEEKS 10–18 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 10–13Sources 1–3
Ligon, Equiano, the Sugar Act: who, when, why.
WK 14–16Sources 4–5 · the ledger
Fox and Liliʻuokalani; the map, the line, the ledger.
WK 17–18The Taking
The Record’s second game: every entry with its cite line.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
THE CASE · sugar
The question. What did sugar cost, and who paid — according to whom?
The make. A written case: a claim, four sources cited by line, the opposing reading answered
The evidence. THE CASE, handed in through The Record
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Semester 2
WEEKS 19–36 · QUARTERS 3 AND 4Production · The Last Meal
WEEKS 19–27 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 19–20The cold open and the wants
Eight investors; what each one needs.
WK 21–24The script and the set
The rest written; the shot list; the room cast.
WK 25–27The cut and the sell
Shot, cut, pitched.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A produced scene with a pitch
The question. What is the scene for — and can a stranger tell in ten seconds?
The make. A scene written, shot, cut and pitched; the Sell-It page as the argument
The evidence. The cut (link) and the Sell-It page, handed in through the Studio
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The Seminar · nine questions
WEEKS 28–36 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 28–29Sparks
The questions with two honest sides.
WK 30–34The Seminar
Four seminars; a position each; the split; the paper.
WK 35–36The portfolio
The year read back.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
The position paper and the portfolio
The question. What do you believe now that you did not in August — and which text did it?
The make. A position paper with the counter-position stated fairly, and a portfolio defense of the year’s four makes
The evidence. The paper and the defense, handed in through the Seminar and My Work
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A course is a quarter, a semester or a year — nine, eighteen or thirty-six weeks — a project a quarter. Offered as the year, a semester or a quarter, it is the same course seen through a window. A lab is a family: its year, each of its tracks as a course, and its rooms. The evidence is what a student hands in through the room; the Report reads it from there. Nothing in the catalog is a grade.
THE PASS · THIS COURSE AND EVERY OTHER ONE
One pass includes English 9 · Story, Source, Seminar and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.